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Social Networking

Written by: Dan Goldstein

Article Overview: Seven reasons you should embrace social networking: 1. Your competition has embraced it. 2. Your customers are using it. 3. You want to be social.... 4. Pay Per Click costs are increasing. 5. SEO isn't easy anymore. 6. You want to drive new prospects to your website. 7. You will get a return on your investment.

Social Networking

Are you involved in Social Networking? Chances are you may be, some 65% of business professionals are connecting via personal and professional social networking websites, according to a recent survey on online social networking conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity.

An even more interesting statistic was posted by adage.com “Since the beginning of the year, Facebook has become a bigger referring site than Google to a number of sites, including gossip sites PerezHilton.com and Dlisted, mom site CafeMom, Evite, video site Tagged.com, and, yes, Twitter.”

Granted these sites are more social gossip and hang out sites than professional sites but clearly there has been a change in how to drive traffic to your site. Let’s go over the top seven reasons you should be involved in social networking.

1. We know your competition has embraced it.
Most of you didn’t even see the competition coming or realize they were competition. Now they started showing up in your market for search terms you have always dominated. They’re doing this via social media sites to build link popularity that the search engines find credible. Your customers are now familiar with their practice. They’ve implemented an SEO strategy that will help them connect with more generations of customers.

2. Your customers have been using it for years.
As I mentioned above many medical, dental and legal practices are trying to connect with and tap into the younger generation. The younger generation is not picking up newspapers and magazines; they are on the internet getting all their news, current events and research. And they are getting a lot of information from social networking sites. Many newspapers are struggling to stay in business, television, and radio. They are realizing that these social media outlets get the word out faster and from more diverse perspectives than traditional media.

3. Get out there and be social.
After consumers do their initial searches through the search engines and get the information they need, they will start narrowing down who we want to go to. They do that by looking for people or reviews from people that have worked with you in the past. What are your customers saying about you? The best customers are the ones who will write you a recommendation or even let you videotape a testimonial from them. You can then post these on your social networking profiles, your GoogleLocal listing, your website and even YouTube.

4. Pay-Per-Click prices are on the rise.
PPC has always been a good tool to use and still is - but the market is getting tougher and your competitors are willing to pay more driving prices up. Your return on your ads is getting worse as a result of rising click through prices and consumers who are critically evaluating all of their options. This makes organic search a "must have" long-term strategy. And by using your social network to build links and traffic to your website, you will improve your link popularity and positioning on the first page in the natural listings.

5. SEO isn’t easy anymore.
Unfortunately, you can’t just do the basics anymore and get great results. It has become far more competitive and ranking well with Google is becoming increasingly more difficult. Internet marketing companies have been pushing things like video for a while now to help your SEO conversion rates. Pretty soon everyone will catch on to social media for SEO. So be ahead of the curve.

6. Your website has no new visitors.
You can have the most beautiful website in the world, and without traffic, it might as well be a needle in a haystack. Your site is up and on the World Wide Web, and now you need traffic, or it’s been there a long time, and you need more traffic. You listened to the search engines and your Internet marketing company and created great content but you still don’t seem to have much traction on the search engines, and only your Aunt, Uncle, Mom, Dad and your employees are the only people are visiting your site every day. Start getting Social!

7. Great return on your investment.
Just look at our new president and the following he had during his campaign through his facebook, myspace and twitter accounts. Social media marketing is the grass roots, word of mouth of the web. Social media is changing the way we communicate with facebook, myspace and twitter, as the way to get information. Social media is beginning to separate the old way of thinking from the new, and rewarding those that are willing to embrace the technology. Are you embracing it?

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Article Tags: adage, business professionals, business television, corporate productivity, facebook, generations, google, gossip, legal practices, link popularity, media outlets, news current events, rsquo, search engines, search terms, social networking sites, statistic, tagged com, video site, younger generation



Related Forum Posts
Re: How can a social networking site make serious money? - Hi There, It is quite interesting, that some Social Networking do produce an income. I think testimonials are always a benefit to share. See one below: This Social Network has changed my life! Every night is a Friday night and everyday is a Saturday!! Because of it, I have been able to leave the workforce 10 years early.It has given me back my life. Many of us would like to retire early. I am sure there are many more. The point is of focusing with great determination. The ongoing challenge is to stay focussed and not be sidetracked into a newer scheme or so. Also I have read, during this financial turmoil, more people turn to Social Networking for various reasons.
Re: Tactics for Blog Traffic - some more tips to drive traffic to blog or to promote a blog. Squidoo Lens Creation Hub Pages Creation Social Bookmarking (Digg, Delicious, Stumble, Reddit etc.) Be helpful in forums Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn etc.) syndication blog commenting (other blogs) Guest post
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Simple Idea - Great Advice. - What your success stories on Social Networking for more contacts and connections? Do you have any good business books to suggest? I love the idea of connecting and sharing with other entrepreneurs. Thank you for your input!
Re: Social Networking Site Endorsements - You must be cautious in endorsing any one on Social Networking site. You must ony endorse people you are very familiar with. Endorsement people you don't know is not a good thing.


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